Written By Brad Harness
The newly-formed - and trained - Foreign Legion battalion, dubbed the Swamp Rats, to which Boris Nadiya belonged, rumbled along the backroads of rural southern Ukraine. They had been selected to conduct a crucial and yet very difficult mission. Their target was the Kerch Bridge.
The bridge was the lifeline of Russian invasion forces in Crimea, a peninsula at the southernmost end of Ukraine. Crimea was one of the provinces snatched from unprepared Ukraine defenders when the first Russian invasion began into Ukraine, in 2014. The peninsula was at the mercy of highways and rail links through southern Ukraine, and across the narrow Kerch Straits, where ferries ran supplies over to the Russian naval, army and air forces, as well as the civilian population.
The Ukraines had cut off the fresh water supplies from the north to try to force the invaders out. The Russians spent billions constructing the Kerch Bridge, a highway and rail link from the Russian lands near Rostov-on-Don, to the east.
Ten years later, with the war in its fourth year, and after repeated unsuccessful Ukraine attempts to destroy the bridge, a new plan had been hatched.
The Foreign Legion would become a distraction for the Russians, while Ukraine Special Forces attacked from the sea. Ukraine’s new F-16 fighter jets and cruise missiles would attack from the air.
The Legionnaires snuck into occupied southern Ukraine aboard dozens of high-speed boats. They ran along the coast and through the wetlands of Crimea, before landing on the western side of the bridge. In short order, they came under fire of Russian defenders of the bridge.
The eastern side was attacked by Atesh partisan fighters from Ukraine, as well as the Special Forces which were landed by submersible drones next to each of the bridge footings with demolition charges. Next, a commandeered Russian oil tanker collided with the main bridge supports, and demolition charges aboard her created a fireball. The shockwave created buckled the highway and rail lines running side by side for 5 kilometres. Russian defenders did not know where to turn to fend off the simultaneous attacks.
Canadian army veteran Borys Nadiya and his comrades opened fire on Russian soldiers manning the bridge’s western approaches. Everywhere, bodies fell to the ground.
NEXT WEEK: PART 8
